WHO: Dory Skipjack. WHAT: Dory tries snow and doesn't like it, so she makes water. It had to be done. Nothing to see here, folks, move along. WHEN: Day 4, while Gypsum and Ritz are walking in a winter wonderland. WHERE: Career camp, the eastern exit of the meadow (G5-ish). STATUS: Narrative / complete (though Careers can react if they want, you know the drill).
Water was a real concern as Dory considered moving away from this spot. Snow was plentiful here, but she'd tried a bit this morning, cautiously like she'd learned to do from watching many past Games where what seemed good to drink ended up making you sick -- and sure enough, she'd been on her hands and knees retching into the snow half an hour later. Lucky for Dory she'd only had a bit, and on a mostly empty stomach too, so though her throat was burning with bile now, she hadn't lost much valuable food or drink to her experiment.
They couldn't give up on the snow, though -- what if they left this side of the Arena and headed west and there was nothing over there, either? So, as she'd learned from previous Games, she tried one more trick. She packed one of the empty cans from the Cornucopia full of snow and used her gloved hands to nestle it carefully into the little campfire.
And watched.
The snow slowly melted into water; the water warmed and started to steam and then, finally, to boil. Dory let it go for a few minutes and then used her knives to lever the can carefully out of the fire, setting it aside. Finally, once it was cool enough to handle, she lifted the can and (cross fingers) took a tiny sip.
Fifteen minutes later, when her stomach was still settled, she tried another sip, and when that one didn't come up either, she took a chance and drank the whole can full. Even warm, it tasted like heaven and the boiling seemed to have worked; she grinned, relieved, and went to pack the can with more snow. As long as the firewood lasted, they could drink their fill of boiled snow here, and fill up all their bottles before they left. That way Ritz's iodine tablets could be held in reserve in case there was nothing to use to make a fire when they moved on.